


Pillow Talk

by brinnanza



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien's messed up world view thanks to the isolation and general bad parenting, Can be read as gen or slash, Cuddling & Snuggling, Gen, Identity Reveal, M/M, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 04:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11372487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brinnanza/pseuds/brinnanza
Summary: “Dude,” Nino says, “if you want to cuddle, you can just say so.”





	Pillow Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently if you want something done, you have to do it yourself. This is just six pages of like really unrepentant, tooth-rotting fluff so yknow make your dentist appointments now. This can be read as gen or pre-slash -- if you want to see it as totally platonic cuddles, go for it. I guess slight warning for like the briefest whiff of internalized homophobia (this would be the "Adrien's messed up world view" tag).
> 
> Thanks a million to Mizu for dragging me into this hole, indulging my nonsense, and beta reading this fic.

“Dude,” Nino says, “if you want to cuddle, you can just say so.”

Adrien flushes hot, probably nearing the same color as the superhero on his computer screen. He hadn’t even noticed he was doing it. They’d started with a whole seat cushion between them, which Adrien had assumed to be the proper distance two boys should sit apart from each other (not that he really had occasion to know), but over the course of the first half of the movie they’re watching, he’d been (unconsciously!) scooting closer and closer to Nino until there were only a few inches between them.  

Nino had just seemed so far away at first compared with how close they sat at school, so he closed the gap just a little bit. Then Nino had swung his arm out to smack Adrien playfully on the shoulder and Adrien just made it a little bit easier to reach. And maybe he’d leaned a little closer to make a comment and then slid over to compensate for where his upper half had moved and maybe something in the movie had made him jump and--

“I’m not -- I don’t --” Adrien stammers, jerking away from Nino so fast that he topples over backwards onto the expanse of empty couch behind him. He scrambles onto his knees. “I was... I just--”

Nino just chuckles, which Adrien thinks is probably the correct reaction to your best friend making a fool of himself, but he doesn’t think it’s supposed to sound quite so… fond. “It’s fine, bro,” Nino says. He holds out one arm and waves his hand. “C’mere.”

Years of being friends with Chloe have taught him that kind gestures rarely come without ulterior motives. Despite Nino’s assurances that he is really ( _really_ really) nothing like Chloe, Adrien still never quite knows what to expect. Chloe would have been on him already. Well, actually she wouldn’t have allowed that much space between them to begin with, but Chloe is a girl and Nino is definitely not a girl. Adrien has, actually, seen movies before, and this is usually the sort of thing that should definitely involve a girl.

“Are you sure?” Adrien asks, trying (and failing) to keep a nervous wobble out of his voice.

“Yeah,” Nino says, waving his hand again. When Adrien doesn’t move, he continues, “Dude, my arm is gonna get tired. I won’t tell anyone if that’s what you’re worried about.”

It isn’t, not really, but it’s close enough, so Adrien moves cautiously along the couch until he’s seated under Nino’s arm, leaving a few inches between them just in case. Nino rolls his eyes, drops his arm around Adrien’s shoulders, and yanks him over until he’s sprawled half on top of Nino, Nino’s arm resting across Adrien’s chest.

“Better?” Nino asks, looking down at him.

Adrien’s face is getting, if possible, even hotter and he’s not totally certain it’s not just going to burst into flames, but Nino is sturdy behind him and his back is warm and Nino’s arm is loose enough that Adrien could get up if he wanted but secure enough to feel like a hold so Adrien just nods.

Nino raises an eyebrow that might as well just say “I told you so” and then he turns back to the tv.

The movie plays on, but Adrien isn’t really hearing it. His gaze jerks nervously over to the door. It would most likely be Nathalie if anyone came in at all, and she at least knew enough about teenage boys to knock first, but there was always a chance--

“Dude, please chill,” Nino says without taking his eyes off of the television. “I get that your posture is like, steel boned or whatever but _relax_.”

“Sorry,” Adrien mumbles. Nino shoots him the look he uses whenever Adrien is being overly serious about something trivial, like some minor social faux pas. It’s something between amused and exasperated, but not the way Nathalie looks exasperated.

Either way, it settles the part of him that had lept straight to “Nino is mad at me” without bothering to stop at “This is a very minor mistake”. Slowly, he lets the tension in his shoulders uncurl until he’s resting all of his weight on Nino. He’s well aware that his strict model diet and bonus secret exercise routine have left him pretty thin, but he’s not sure how much _he_ would like a whole person lying on his chest, so he says, “Are you sure I’m not too heavy?”

Nino snorts. “Dude, you’re like 95 percent bones. It’s fine, I promise.”

Adrien considers that for a moment, but he trusts Nino not to lie to him. He turns his head so it’s resting on Nino’s shoulder and tries to pay attention to the movie.

He’s not particularly successful. Because Nino has always been pretty tactile, but fist bumps and the occasional casual arm slung across his shoulders are one thing and this -- whatever this is -- is something else.  Adrien’s not sure he even has a frame of reference for what this is. It’s like a sideways hug but also nothing at all like that.

Before he’d met Nino, it had mostly just been photographers and makeup artists moving him into position or poking him with eyeliner, but it isn’t as if Adrien’s never been hugged before.

He’d hugged Ladybug on a few memorable occasions, and there had been that unexpected hug from his father after Simon Says, which he thinks is the closest he’s been to his father in at least a year. (Until it had segued immediately into drawing attention away from his Miraculous, and then things were as cold and distant as ever.) And his mother had hugged him. She’d held him close and kissed his cheeks and if Adrien really concentrates, sometimes he can remember curling up in her lap with his face tucked into her neck under a curtain of golden hair.

It was a long time ago.

He shoves the memory back into the box it had snuck out of. Even hugs that linger are supposed to _stop_ , and Nino has his feet propped up on the coffee table like he intends to stay here for the rest of his life. Adrien cranes his neck up to look at his face. He’s not sure what he’s looking for exactly -- impatience, maybe, or the same blank, vaguely disappointed expression that never seems to budge from his father’s face. But Nino’s just focused on the movie, a grin on his face that melts into laughter Adrien can feel rumbling against his back.

It’s infectious, and then Adrien is laughing too. He’s not even sure what he’s laughing at -- he’d missed the scene in the movie and his train of thought hadn’t been a humorous one, but suddenly he can’t stop. He can’t remember the last time he laughed this hard, and it isn’t even about anything.

Nino’s laughter slows and he takes a deep breath, but then he glances down and catches Adrien’s eye and it sets him off again. Adrien’s grin is so wide his cheeks are beginning to hurt, but for once it’s not from holding the same expression for an hour while camera flashes go off.

He’s just…. happy.

They do, eventually, manage to catch their breath. The movie is rolling through the credits, but Nino seems content to stay where he is, so Adrien settles back down against him. The sun is setting just outside of the tall windows, throwing warm sunlight across Adrien’s legs, and his eyes slip closed. He decides that if Nino never wants to move again, he would be completely okay with that.

After a minute, Nino says, “Uh… Adrien?”

He probably wants to get up, and Adrien will let him, but in a minute. He’s so comfortable, like he could fall asleep between one breath and the next. “Mmm?” he hums.

“Don’t take this the wrong way bro,” Nino says, “but are you _purring_?”

Adrien’s eyes fly open and he jerks away from Nino, toppling off the couch and onto the floor, narrowly avoiding bashing his head on the coffee table. He hauls himself upright and shoves a hand through his hair, trying (and failing) to affect his Cool Model Adrien Agreste persona.

He forces a weak laugh. “Uh, what?” he says. Because he trusts Nino not to tell, except he doesn’t totally trust Nino not to tell Alya and he _definitely_ doesn’t trust Alya not to put Chat Noir’s secret identity on her blog. “That’s pretty, um, ridiculous. How would that even work?”

This is definitely Plagg’s fault somehow. Adrien’s not sure how, exactly, but he’s pretty sure he couldn’t purr before the whole cat-based superhero thing and the fact that his powers are destruction and bad luck is probably not helping. Adrien is definitely feeding him nothing but American cheese for at least a week.

Nino gives him a look like he’d just said he’d like to take a swim in the Seine and says, “Uh, probably from the catboy powers?”

Adrien’s first thought is that Ladybug is going to kill him. His second thought is that the whole world is about to find out his secret identity. His third thought is that Ladybug is _really_ going to kill him.

“What?” Adrien says, hoping to play it off as a joke. “That would be awesome but I’m not--”

“Dude,” Nino cuts in. “Your face is plastered on like half of Paris. I sit next to you every day. Do you really think I wouldn’t recognize you under a mask that covers _maybe_ a third of your face?”

This is not happening. This is definitely not happening because Ladybug made him promise not to tell, and he _did_ , and he didn’t say anything, but he’s pretty sure “utter lack of subtlety” and also “accidental cat behavior” are close enough to telling in her book and he is _so dead_.

“You--” he starts faintly, sinking back down onto the couch.  “How -- You can’t -- Secret?”

“Like I said,” Nino says matter-of-factly. “I’m not gonna tell anyone.”

“Not even Alya?”

“Not even Alya.”

Okay. It’s still possible that he might get through this without finding out exactly how many ways there are to skin a cat. He just has to keep calm and swear Nino to secrecy upon pain of death. His death. At Ladybug’s hand. “No one is supposed to know,” he says. “Does anyone else know?”

Nino shakes his head and slides over on the couch so he’s sitting next to Adrien, their legs touching. “Nah. Who would ever think Superman would be like, a boring news reporter?”

“Am I Superman or is Cat Noir Superman?” Adrien asks.

“It works either way.” Nino stretches his arm over the back of the couch so it’s just barely touching Adrien, giving Adrien a way out if he wants it. “The point is, Cat Noir is too busy being Cat Noir and Adrien Agreste is too busy being Adrien Agreste. I think you’re fine, bro. Not everyone has my rad facial recognition skills.” He gives Adrien a reassuring smile and Adrien’s heart rate crawls back down toward sort of normal.

He can’t resist though. He leans back into Nino and flashes him an innocent grin. “You mean you never _fur_ get a face?” Nino groans, but he’s laughing, and Adrien can feel the vibrations where they’re pressed together.

Nino shifts so his back is against the arm of the couch, and he pulls Adrien along with him. Once they’re settled, Adrien sandwiched between the back of the couch and Nino’s side, both of their legs stretched out along the length of the couch, Nino starts laughing again.

“Sorry,” Adrien says, flushing hot. “I don’t have a lot of control over it?”

“It’s fine dude,” Nino assures him. “It’s a little weird considering you’re, y’know, a person, but I have had cats before. I get it.”

They’re quiet for a long moment, Nino’s occasional chuckles blending with the rise and fall of Adrien’s purr, and then Adrien says, “Hey Nino?”

“Mmhmm?” says Nino. Adrien glances up at him, and his head is tilted back against the arm of the couch with his eyes closed.

“Thank you,” says Adrien. “For not telling. And for… this.”

“Sure thing dude,” Nino says. His voice has gone a little muzzy, and Adrien thinks a nap sounds pretty good. Nino yawns, and then he says, “Any time, bro. I mean it. You seem like you need it.”

Adrien hums a noncommittal response and then closes his eyes. They fall silent, just the sound of their breathing and a soft vibration. Adrien is right on the edge between asleep and awake when a thought occurs to him.

“Does this mean you know who Ladybug is?” he asks, picking his head up off of Nino’s shoulder.

“Go to sleep Adrien,” Nino says without opening his eyes.

“But--”

“If you keep asking me, I’m gonna tell her you were bugging me about it and then what do you think she’ll do?”

Adrien cracks a smile at the pun, which promptly evaporates when he actually thinks about it. His Lady is beautiful and strong and smart, but he does not want to be on the wrong side of her wrath. “Fine,” he says, settling down again. “I guess I’ll let it go. _Fur_ now.”

Nino slides his arm around Adrien and draws him a little closer. “You already used that one,” he says, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Am I being too re _pet_ itive?”

“ _Adrien_.”

“Alright, alright.” He closes his eyes, soft smile still on his face, and they sleep.


End file.
